Salman Butt

Confession. I spent the best part of two months of a frenetic IPL season with Salman Butt.

Confession. I spent the best part of two months of a frenetic IPL season with Salman Butt. And if you ask me what I thought of him, in those 50 days he was one of the most reasonable, well behaved, honest and committed cricketers I had ever seen. So, am I just a terrible judge of character – or did the man change overnight. To try and make sense of what happened, let me just skip back a few years in the story - to February, 2008.

The first auction was over, and in two days, Lalit Modi announced a second auction for players who had not yet been signed up by the IPL before the first auction. It proved to be a significant development as Rajasthan – sitting on a lot of left over money, picked up Shane Watson, Sohail Tanveer and Ravinder Jadeja and Kings XI snagged a young man called Shaun Marsh who would lead the IPL in scoring. For our part, we had just $ 150,000 left – and had a clear mandate to pick up a back up batsman and an all rounder. At that price, we were delighted to get Mohammed Hafeez and Salman Butt, both highly recommended by the then Pakistan coach, Geoff Lawson.

Salman arrived after a series in Bangladesh in red hot form, with three centuries in 5 innings. And with Gayle out for the season with a groin injury, Salman would probably be a first choice starter after Ponting and McCullum left.

I remember meeting Salman, Hafeez and Umar Gul for the first time, and being really impressed by their commitment and attitude. Salman had a degree in computer programming, was well read and educated – and a keen student of the game. His wife joined him for most of the tour, and the only request the team management ever got from him was a car to take him and his wife to the movies.

On field, he was disciplined and committed, and did his best to try and prop up a batting order devastated by Gayle’s injury and McCullum’s absence. He was quite friendly with all the Indian cricketers, and was particularly fond of Laxmi Ratan Shukla – who he claimed had fed him the best biryani east of Karachi.

There was not even a hint of any behaviour that was even remotely suspicious. What happened in the two years since that transformed this poster boy of the new educated, urbane Pakistan side into the biggest villain in the cricketing world since Hansie Cronje?

Here’s my theory- and for all practical purposes, it is a theory.

First, the black swan happened. Salman Butt had a contract with the IPL for another two years – a potential income of another $ 200,000 dollars. But 26/11 changed all that – and all Pakistan player contracts were cancelled. Salman was apparently half way through building a house, losing that kind of money could mean stopping construction – a serious loss of face in a country where face counts for a lot.

And there could not have been much legal opportunity to make that money elsewhere, the money in Pakistan cricket from sponsorship and match fees is far more modest than Indian cricket.

That kind of financial vulnerability is just what the typical fixer needs. From there on – it is a short slippery slope. It would probably have started with a casual chat and a few visits to the players hotel room. The first person to introduce the fixer would most likely have been a relative or close friend of the player. Then a few gifts here and there, no cash – a designer watch or some nice jewellery for the wife. And then perhaps, just a casual question on next day’s team.

As a senior anti-corruption official once told me – if a player was asked one fine evening if he would fix a match for money, 99% of the people accused of fixing today would have refused. It always starts with innocuous requests and keeps escalating.

I believe that Salman probably still believes that he was not hurting Pakistan cricket because he would never betray his country if he was asked to drop a match. All he was doing was becoming financially comfortable by asking a player to bowl a few no balls, inconsequential really over a five day test match. The truth is that that’s all a spot fixer needs to make money – not a player to throw away his wicket – not a dramatic batting collapse – just a no ball or a wide here and there. And when he can fix those, he can possibly try and make bigger money by fixing bigger things.

I am not standing in Salman’s defense, whatever the circumstances, he crossed the line – and there is no way back. But it takes just a slice of bad luck and one bad decision on your part, one moment of madness to be forever caught in a web of deceit. It’s a tough world out there. By Joy Bhattacharjya